"Oh YES we did......" and it wasn't too bad.

Last weekend......Don and I traveled to Nashville for a long weekend by ourselves. Why Nashville? Several reasons one of which, we have never been there for a visit, only have passed through there....and it's only 9 hours from Baton Rouge and there are TONS of things to do there.

So......Friday afternoon...off we went. We took the "Natchez Trace Parkway" up, and it was very serene and pretty but also......very long. Ugh...but again....serene, no semi's ramming after you or veering into your lane like on the Interstates. It was worth the drive. Once in a lifetime anyway.

Well, when in Nashville, you do the most greatest, most famous Nashville thing right? You go to the "Grand Ol'Opry." I informed my husband on the way up that we would be going to that. He was not thrilled. We aren't into Country and Western music......but again, it's an American Icon so I'm like....."we need to do this."

And we did.
Once arriving into Nashville on Saturday afternoon we headed straight for the Opry so we could secure tickets for that nights show. It was VERY hot and very crowded in that area, there are attractions and a mall and stuff around the Opry......so we quickly realized we didn't want to loose our parking spot. HA! Seriously it was very crowded there.....and did I mention HOT?? Ugh.....we walked all over the place, went to the Gaylord Hotel to check on a room there.....very, very, awesome place.....it has an INDOOR river and boat rides and veranda's off the hotel rooms and plants and foliage like I've never seen. I wanted to stay there BAD but there were no rooms on site and it was a bizillion dollars. We will stay there next time for sure!

I had already found a hotel online in case we stayed near the Opry and we called them from our truck in the sacred parking spot and booked a room. With that done....we went in the restaurant across the way and ate supper to burn time and fill our hungry selves. We realized early on once arriving at the Grand Ol Opry that many people were NOT going to be dressed up....some possibly but it's a "touristy" thing so with not wanting to leave the parking spot and rush to our hotel room and try to get back and get our good spot that we never would get again......we decided to freshen up in the car......I redid my make up that had melted off during our walking jot, and redid my hair into a hair clip and with that......we went to eat and then after that.....we went to the Opry!!! YAHOO.

It wasn't bad at all.....in fact.....it was fun. 2 1/2 hours of pure, raw, live, entertainment. They have a great way of working it all out. They change the hosts of the show every 30 minutes, and within that 30 minutes they have an old act....meaning and older person....and then a young act.......meaning young people.

They keep it pretty fresh for all ages. We were totally impressed by that and we could endure the heartache songs that way as well. They had hosts that were serious and some that were funny and they did commercials for Martha White and for Cracker Barrel the sponsors of the show......this was a "live radio broadcast" and they tape it for the Country Music Channel also.

We DID get to see "Porter Wagner" who is the most well known person there I would have to say. HA! That was totally worth the 9 hour trip right there. He had a huge gray bouffant hair style.....yeah it used to be blond hair back in the day and he had on a fab pink rhinestone "country" outfit with white cowboy boots. Yeah! Those were the days. Whew.

Vince Gill who is married to Christian singing artist Amy Grant was the last and most appreciated host of the night. HA! He seemed to be a nice guy. That night to top off the evening......we ate at my FAVORITE on the road restaurant....the "Cracker Barrel" which was a huge sponsor of the Opry. Cool.
I love their food and their gift shop. It's always so down homey and good.

The next day.....Sunday......we ate breakfast at our hotel. Then went for a nice, relaxing swim which my joints and muscles needed after that long drive up...it totally helped me out. I had told Don the day before that Sunday was "his day" to do whatever he wanted to do........so we were at the BASS PRO SHOP across from the Opry for many hours. HA!

Then we went and shopped and ate lunch in the Outlet Mall beside it. That was fun......but wow......like over 5 hours of shopping. We started on Christmas shopping which works for me. Then we went back to the room and relaxed the rest of the night. We would have swam again but the pool was then "closed for repairs"......scary.

Monday we headed to Memphis on our way home but with a purpose in mind. To eat at the "2nd best BBQ joint" in all of the nation. We had just seen a show the night before in our hotel room on the "Travel Channel" on the best BBQ places in America. We chose this place....."The Interstate BBQ" because the other one they mentioned was "Corkys" and we have one here in Baton Rouge so we can do that anytime.

We hit Memphis at about 2:30pm and were STARVING. We could not wait to eat that BBQ and it was SOOOO worth it. Ugh......we came out of that place STUFFED and satisfied only to drive 6 hours to Baton Rouge. Blah. HA!

There is way more to do in Nashville than we could attempt to get to and we hardly even scratched the surface so we do want to go back sometime. It's a nice town so check it out if you get the chance. I'm serious there are lots of neat things to see and do.
Besides, Tennesse is always nice, it reminds me so much of my home state of Missouri, rocky and craggy and all.....I miss the hills and rocks. Sigh.

We are now back in the "humid, hot and the flat".....figure that one out.